Formula One will test at the Jerez circuit February 1st through 4th. Photo: Circus F1

Formula One will have its first official test of 2015 at the Jerez circuit in Spain February 1st through 4th. Eight teams are set to attend the testing sessions with Force India, Marussia, and Caterham being the three teams that will not be there. 

Follow along below with live tweets, results, and more from the four days of testing at Jerez: 

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Ferrari Racing revealed their 2015 chassis design on Friday. Photo: Scuderia Ferrari

The 2015 Ferrari car for the Formula One series was revealed this Friday. The SF-15T will be driven by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in the upcoming season. Much like the other cars that have been released, the Ferrari machine has a longer front nose than last year’s cars, per the new regulations in this category.

Ferrari’s technical director, James Allison, said the team is trying to combat the “unacceptably large gap in our performance” last season as compared to the rival teams. The team will be looking for their first win since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 after going win-less last season. 

Williams Racing revealed their 2015 car design. Photo: Getty Images

Each week, we take a look at numbers, stats, and other pieces of data that come up in Motorsport coverage. From Formula One to IndyCar and all in between, we’ll search around and find the most significant pieces of information from the week.

In the news this week: IndyCar schedule changes, Luca Filippi added to CFH Racing, Formula One cars unveiled, and the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

16
The number of races the 2015 IndyCar season will have after the Brasilia 300 was cancelled on Thursday. The announcement came as a surprise to fans and the IndyCar series, which will now kick off on March 29th on the Streets of Saint Petersburg.

6
The number of cars on the 2015 Formula One grid whose designs and cars have been revealed. Force India would be number seven, but they have only released pictures of the livery for the 2015 car, not the chassis itself.

Luca Filippi will join CFH Racing in 2015. Photo: Eurosport

The Target Chip Ganassi entry in the 24 Hours of Daytona this past weekend. Photo: Chris Trotman

This past Saturday and Sunday, 14 Indy 500 starters took to Daytona International Speedway to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The 24 hour endurance race featured 53 teams in total across all of the series; Prototype, GT Le Mans, Prototype Challenge, and GT Daytona.  

Sage Karam
Charlie Kimball
Tony Kanaan
Scott Dixon
Sebastien Bourdais
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Jack Hawksworth
Martin Plowman
Ryan Briscoe
Simon Pagenaud
Graham Rahal
Townsend Bell
James Hinchcliffe
James Davison

The IndyCar drivers fared very well in the endurance race, with Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan piloting the #02 Chip Ganassi car to a victory in the Prototype class. Sebastian Bourdais followed suit behind them with a second place finish in the #5 car, co-piloted by Barbosa and Fittipaldi.

The winner of the GT Le Mans series also had an IndyCar driver behind the wheel, Ryan Briscoe. Along with Magnussen and Garcia as the other drivers, the #3 entry was the first of the GTLM class to cross the finish line, completing 725 laps in the 24 hour period.

Other significant finishes for IndyCar drivers are listed below:

Dixon: First overall, first in Prototype
Kanaan: First overall, first in Prototype
Bourdais: Second overall, second in Prototype
Briscoe: Fifth overall, first in GTLM
Pagenaud: Eighth overall, third in GTLM

IndyCar natives have had a good track record historically at the Rolex 24. Juan Pablo Montoya is tied for seventh on the all time win list with three wins. Scott Dixon, Al Unser, Jr., and A.J. Foyt are all tied for 13th on the same list with two wins.

Ganassi as a constructor has also been quite successful, winning six of the last ten 24 Hours’ of Daytona.

The IndyCar drivers and teams had great success in the competition in 2015, only building on the great history that the series has when competing in the endurance event.

William’s driver Valtteri Bottas.  Source: Gallery Hip

Williams Martini Racing driver Valtteri Bottas finished the 2013 Formula One season in 17th place in the driver’s championship, just one spot above his teammate Pastor Maldonado. Certainly not a terrible outing for a rookie in the series. But 2014 was a different story for the Finn, paired with ex-Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, Bottas finished in the top five of the points standings and came close to clinching a race win for Williams on several occasions. 

In the first five races of the 2014 season, Bottas had consecutive top ten finishes with the highest being fifth place in both Australia and Spain.  His 13 year-F1 veteran teammate had finishes of 20, 7, 7, 15, and 13 in those same five races, with Australia being a DNF due to a first lap crash.  Bottas has his lone DNF of the year in the next race, Monte Carlo, due to an engine failure on lap 56.  

After the disappointing setback in Monaco, Bottas really set himself apart from the “rest of the pack” and established himself as a firm competitor with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.  The remaining 13 races on the calendar saw top ten finishes in all but Singapore (13th place finish) for Bottas, eight of those being top five performances. In 2013,  Valtteri Bottas had one top ten finish all year which came in the form of a P8 performance in Austin, Texas.  

The end of the year tally saw Bottas put up some impressive stats:  

• Average start of 6.2
• Average finish of 6.1
• 6 podium finishes
• 98% of the total laps run completed